Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for distributing electrical energy in several circuits supplied in parallel by a single source of electrical energy and, more particularly, to such a device of the type comprising a busbar connected, on the one hand, to said source and, on the other hand, to a plurality of electrical contacts each forming part of one of said circuits.
Such devices are known, these being designed to supply several electrical circuits mounted on a printed-circuit board and supplied in parallel by a single source of electrical energy, such as, for example, a battery, by means of a busbar connected to the battery and distributing the energy to each of the circuits. Such a solution is especially applicable in automobile electronics for supplying a plurality of circuits comprising relays, for controlling the electrical supply for actuators, and fuses for protecting these circuits.
These fuses must therefore be sized depending on the intensity of the maximum current that each circuit can withstand. They are each mounted between the busbar, which is normally connected to the positive pole of the battery, and an associated circuit to be protected. Mounting these fuses specific to each circuit therefore involves handling operations, and therefore costs, which adversely affect the manufacturing cost of the board which carries all the circuits, especially when it is a question of manufacturing electrical energy, of the type comprising a busbar connected, on the one hand, to said source and, on the other hand, to a plurality of electrical contacts each forming part of one of said circuits, this device being noteworthy in that it comprises a plurality of self-resettable fuses for protecting said circuits, these being soldered to said bushbar and each consisting of a layer of a dispersion of an electrically conductive particulate material in a polymer, said layer being laminated between first and second plane and parallel electrodes electrically connected on the one hand, to said source and, on the other hand, to a plurality of electrical contacts each forming part of one of said circuits, this device being noteworthy in that it comprises a plurality of self-resettable fuses for protecting said circuits, these being soldered to said busbar and each consisting of a layer of a dispersion of an electrically conductive particulate material in a polymer, said layer being laminated between first and second plane and parallel electrodes electrically connected to the busbar and to said electrical contacts of an associated circuit, respectively.
Advantageously, according to the invention, said fuses are electrically isolated from each other by grooves cut into the same sheet of said dispersion layer laminated between two plane and parallel electrodes, said grooves defining individual fuses having an area proportional to the maximum admissible current in the associated circuit.
The invention also provides a process for manufacturing the device according to the invention, in which a sheet consisting of a layer of a dispersion of an electrically conductive particulate material in a polymer, said layer being laminated between first and second electrodes, is soldered to the busbar, a plurality of grooves are cut in the thickness of said sheet, said grooves dividing the latter into a plurality of self-resettable fuses having an area proportional to the value of the maximum current that an associated circuit can withstand, and the busbar thus furnished with fuses is soldered to all of the circuits to be supplied so that the supply for each circuit is protected by one of said fuses.
As will be seen in greater detail later, this process makes it possible to manufacture the device according to the invention at low cost, the device furthermore having a small overall size.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear on reading the description which follows and on examining the appended drawing in which: